35 



and Solomon seems to have known this effect of 

 them when he brings as an instance of it, vinegar, and 

 the nitre of E^yptt 



10. Another convincing proof of the ability of 

 the ancients in chymistry, is the experiment with 

 which Cleopatra entertained Marc Antony, in dis- 

 solving before him, in a kind of vinegar, a pearl of 

 very great value. I say, in a kind of vinegar, for 

 at present we know not of any that can produce this 

 effect, but as the fact itself is so well attested, we 

 must thence conclude that the queen added some* 

 thing to the vinegar, omitted by the historian : and 

 that Phacas, who was her physician, assisted her at 

 that time with his aid, in enabling her thus to gain 

 the wager which she had laid with Marc Antony, that 

 she would exceed him in the costliness of her en- 

 tertainment. But even the queen herself was a great 

 adept in this art 3 as appears from some of her per- 

 formances, still preserved in the libraries of Paris, 

 Venice, and the Vatican. And Pliny informs us of 

 the Emperor Caius, that by means of fire extracted 

 some gold from a quantity of orpiment. 



11. The method of rendering glass ductile, is a 

 secret still uncomprehended by us, though formerly 

 well known to the ancients. The authors who lived 

 at the very time when this was done, speak of it so 

 circumstantially, that it is impossible to doubt of 

 it. They are Pliny, Petronius, Ibn Abd Alhokin, 

 John of Salisbury, Isidorus, and others. Piiny 

 speaks only of the flexibility of glass, which he says, 

 was found out in the time of Tiberius ; but that the 

 Emperor fearing lest gold and silver, those most pre* 

 cious metals should thereby fall in their value, so as 

 to become contemptible, ordered the residence, work, 

 house and tools of the ingenious artizan to be de- 

 stroyed, and thus cut off this art in its rise. Petro- 

 nius goes further, aud says, that in the lime of Tibe* 



c<5 



